1. Field
The present application generally relates to dental planning, and more particularly to occlusion estimation in dental prosthesis design.
2. Description of Related Technology
The use of computer systems to design dental prostheses has increased in recent years. The computer systems allow a dentist, dental technician, or other operator to design dental prostheses for individual patients. Individual prosthesis designs are often called “situations,” “dental plans,” or “prosthetic plans.” Operators using the computer systems can design plans based on a library of the teeth shapes and positions, patient data, and available equipment and hardware.
When designing dental prostheses, a tooth or set of teeth's occlusion with antagonist teeth can be a factor in both function and aesthetics. Additionally, manipulating individual prosthetic teeth (or sets of individual prosthetic teeth) in a multi-tooth prosthesis can be difficult. When the upper set of teeth and the lower set of teeth have been scanned separately, it can be difficult to determine the occlusion between these occluding teeth. The difficulty may arise because the restrictions imposed by the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of the jaw or other anatomy of the patient may be absent from the design software. Even when the TMJ and/or other restricting anatomy are represented in the design software, the operator may still need to estimate the occlusion between occluding teeth. Current techniques for providing occlusion estimation are not adequate and can be computationally expensive. The techniques, systems, methods, and computer-readable storage medium described herein overcome some issues associated with the prior art and provide for occlusion estimation and/or crown manipulation in dental prosthesis design.